"Religious Storm Troopers"

Kerry Howley | September 26, 2007

The regime tests the protesters:

The government of Myanmar began a violent crackdown today after tolerating more than a month of ever-larger protests in cities around the country, clubbing and tear- gassing protesters, firing shots into the air and arresting hundreds of the monks who are at the heart of the demonstrations.

The Reuters news agency quoted hospital and monastery sources as saying two monks and a civilian were killed and several people were wounded in the crackdown.

Despite threats and warnings by the authorities and despite the beginnings of a violent response, tens of thousands of chanting, cheering protesters flooded the streets, witnesses reported. Monks were in the lead, “like religious storm troopers,” as one foreign observer described the scene.

A friend of a friend in Yangon writes, rather more succintly:

internet going down. phone lines down. bullets fired into the air. crowd not retreating.